The Pemalite Crystal
by AniPhoenix
Summary: Marco, Ax and Cassie stumble upon a plot of a renegade Yeerk after the end of the war. WARNING! First Fanfic-find a way to protect yourself from the flames! Please R/R in a not-too-evil manner. :) Chapter 4 Uploaded!
1. The Discovery

The Pemalite Crystal

The Pemalite Crystal

I don't own the Animorphs-the traitorous K. A. Applegate does. As well as any characters or names. Kudos to her. There. I said it.

PS-If KA or anyone from Scholastic is reading this-PLEASE DON'T SUE ME!!

(I'm writing this as of 3:00 AM. I've been writing since 1:00 AM. If this fic isn't top material, there's the reason [along with the fact that this is my first Fanfic.] So...Please don't kill me if it stinks!

"Ax, what is that?" I asked but I already knew the answer.

Maybe I should explain a couple of things first. My name is Marco. You may know me from my appearances on TV. that's right, I'm the famous Animorph, Marco. The amazing hero Marco. The oh-so-hot-and-irresistable-to-women Marco. 

You probably already know about the Yeerks and their invasion and the end of the war, so I'm not even going to bother explaining it. 

It has been about a month since the war ended. I had managed to get away from the mobs of fans and worshipers that seemed to follow me everywhere. I was standing with Ax and Cassie in an abandoned office building for the Sharing-the frontal organization for the "recruitment of troops" for the Yeerk Empire. 

It was basically a dump. My best guess would be that as soon as word got out that the Sharing was related to the Yeerks, everyone within a five-mile radius had come and torn the place apart. Whole walls had been knocked down. The entire northern face had been ripped off and every window had been shattered. Anything of value was taken away or left in pieces-computers, televisions, desks-you name it. 

We had come down to take a look at the last sign of Yeerks on Earth. Call it curiosity, but something at the back of my mind kept telling me to come down here. 

Far be it from me not to trust my instincts. I guess Cassie and Ax had the same idea. (And I'm not entirely sure Jake and Tobias hadn't had the same feelings.) After looking around for a while, I felt my instincts may have been wrong. But then I saw it. The shiny metal looked out of place against the rusted metal and graffiti covered walls behind it. It was weirdly shaped, and had a grey-ish liquid in it. I'd seen only one before. I called Ax and Cassie over and asked.

It is a portable Kandrona pool, Ax replied in his matter-of-fact voice. And it has been recently used.

* * * * * * * * * * 

No one talked for a while after that. We just stared at the alien object in horror and disgust. It was a symbol. A symbol that an oppresionistic force was still alive on this planet. Usually, I'm not the one who thinks of stuff like that, but I swear that's what I thought right then. I guess I'd been hanging out with Cassie too long. 

I felt sick to my stomach.

Cassie was the first to speak after what seemed to be an eternity. "How is this possible?"

I do not know, Ax replied, still stricken with wonder. 

"It's been a month, and these things are only good for one time. So for a Yeerk to survive..." Cassie counted to herself. "It would take nine or ten of these..." she motioned toward the pool.

"Where could he have gotten so many of them?" I wondered out loud. Suddenly there was a horribly loud creak. "Uh-oh." Then came a sound I was dreading: an even louder CRUNCH! The nausea I had felt earlier suddenly became worse. I soon realized why. I was falling.

I knew the sensation of falling all too well. I've been a bird and dived at super high speeds towards the ground. I still remember the mission where I had to infiltrate the Matcom building by falling into a vent shaft from a pipe two stories up as a wolf spider. After all the years experience, I was still not used to it. Especially not in human form.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhh!"

Ahhhhh!

I fell into a world of darkness.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Marco, wake up!" I felt a slap across my face.

"Ow! Stop that!" I complained. I got up, and felt a searing pain in my head. I felt my forehead for injuries and felt a huge bump. "This isn't going to help my TV career," I joked. No one laughed. I looked over at Cassie and Ax and realized they were staring away from the fallen floor from above. "What is it? Where are we?"

I believe we are in the basement of the building. Judging by the looks of these boxes, it must not have been disturbed for a long while. Something about the tone of Ax's "voice" told me he was preoccupied with something. I noticed all four of his eyes were pointed where Cassie's were. I looked too and was dumbfounded at what I saw.

"I guess this answers your question, Cassie." I was looking at a room the size of a football field. That's not the astounding part. It was the fact that the room was filled with row after row of wooden crates, most of the ones we could see were marked with the words: PORTABLE KANDRONA POOLS. I turned around, and saw the floor of the above room extend down like a slide. I looked beyond it and saw a set of stairs leading up, and three of the crates, broken open, spilling out packing foam. 

FWAPP! I turned around and saw Ax cutting into a crate with his wicked tail blade. Sometimes I envy Andalites, just because of the money they must save on defense systems back on their planet. 

I count twenty pools per crate.

"Sixty pools?!" I yelled. "You mean that a Yeerk has up to two months more charge ups before he has to come back here for supplies?"

"That doesn't seem so bad. Two months isn't that long. Besides, Marco, where's he gonna go?"

Actually... Ax said worriedly.

"What?" I asked

Yeerk pools' Kandrona producers are rechargeable by two ways. One being to have the producer soaked in Kandrona rays itself. The other, is to connect the producer to a source of energy that is very powerful. Such as a space craft engine.

"What on this planet is that powerful?" I asked.

Nothing. The only thing I have ever seen that powerful would be the Pemalite crystal.

"What did you and Jake ever do with that crystal, Marco?"

I thought for a moment. "We...we threw it into the ocean. Well, actually, Jake's dog did."

"What?! You threw the most powerful machine on Earth into the ocean?"

"Um...yes." I felt a heat crawl up my spine and into my neck.

If the Yeerks had done a sensor sweep of the oceans, they may have found it. Do you think that is what this renegade Yeerk is looking for?

"Oh my God. What if he finds it? He could have a power greater than Andalites and humans together!" Cassie stated. Ax gave her an indignant Andalite look with his eyes and then a look of fear washed over them.

We must find this Yeerk!

"Wait a minute!" I said. "How do we even know that this is the Yeerk's plan? There's no proof that he's even looking for the crystal. The Empire never went looking for it after they lost it at Matcom, so why would he decide to do it now?" Ax walked over to an unmarked crate and reached in it with his tail. When it came out, it was holding something that looked like a remote for a television. 

Because of this sensor. It is specifically designed for the kind of energy fields that were given off by the crystal. And because of the fact that two of these were missing from the crate.

"Oh," I said stupidly.

"That's not our only problem," Cassie stated. "A Z-space communicator and a number of weapons were also found missing. Whoever this guy is, he must be expecting some trouble from humans during his search."

"Duh. he's got sixty Yeerk pools on him. They're going to be hard to hide without the aid of a shipping truck, and those things are checked frequently by paranoid cops all of the time." I said. I didn't mean to sound mean, but this kind of news didn't exactly bring out my best moods.

I believe we should consult Prince Jake about this. If what we are thinking is true, it may cause the war to start again.

"How?" I asked.

"If news that a Pemalite crystal were found by a Yeerk on Earth reached the Yeerk home world, the Council of Thirteen may decide to send the rest of their troops and ships here in a last effort to beat the Andalites, and they could with that crystal," Cassie said with a twinge of sickness in her voice.

"We have to stop him. At all costs."

"How will we find him?"

"We won't. We'll find the crystal and then he'll find us. Assuming the fact that he hasn't got the crystal already. Ax?"

Yes?

"Grab a sensor..."

To Be Continued...


	2. The Hope

Chapter Two: The Hunt

Chapter Two: The Hunt

We each morphed a bird and flew out of the hole in the ceiling. After all of the hardships and fighting, all of the memories of war, I still felt the thrill and excitement of flying. It's like a whole new world. Humans can only move in two dimensions, but birds, oh man! They can dive, soar, spiral, loop, fly high, swoop down, and skim the earth's surface at a hundred miles an hour. It's beyond cool.

I flew out of a shattered window in my osprey morph, following a bit too close behind another osprey and a harrier-Cassie and Ax- holding what looked like a normal, everyday remote control. Of course, when any of us are involved, the word normal is kicked out the window. 

We weren't too worried about someone spotting two ospreys and a harrier hanging out together. Sure, it would look weird to any bird-watchers, but we didn't care because there was no more danger involved. For one time in my life, I was able to appreciate flying without having to worry about death, my responsibility to the human race, or a bunch of evil slugs here to take over. My life was beginning to go back to- well, as close as I could get to- normal. I would have laughed if birds could laugh.

Where do we go? Cassie asked. This shook me out of my reverie. 

Let's go to the roof of this building, I said.

When we got there, we demorphed and looked to Ax. He was messing with the sensor, all four eyes intent on the device. 

Ah, he stated. A moment later, I heard a series of beeps. 

"Where is he?" I asked impatiently.

He appears to be approximately 1,567 of your miles south east of us. He looked like he was trying to remember something. I would say somewhere in northern South America, if I recall the maps of Earth correctly, but he is 200 of your miles south of the crystal.

"What?!" I yelled. Then I thought about what Ax had said. "He's 200 miles southof the crystal? That would mean that he overshot it, and he doesn't even know! That must mean his sensor is out of whack!" A wave of relief washed over me. Too soon it seemed.

"It won't take that long for him to figure out his sensor is wrong," Cassie stated. "and when he does, he'll switch over to the other one."

We must get there quickly and apprehend either him or the crystal.

"How? We can't just morph and fly—how many miles?" I asked.

1,567 of your miles.

Ax's humor was getting on my nerves. "So how do we get there?"

"Simple. We borrow a helicopter," Cassie said.

"Why borrow one? Why don't we just ask our Air Force and Andalite military friends to take care of this Yeerk for us?"

"Because, the U.S. government might decide to go in with force and the Andalites may decide to go in with even more unnecessary force than the government. After all, we made all of the ones here look like savage idiots in front of their home world." Cassie had a way of seeing everything in depth and from a lot more perspectives than I could. "Besides, why involve them when we have everything we need?"

"What about a pilot?" She looked at Ax. 

I can fly any human made machine, if that is what you are wondering, Ax stated with a sense of pride. I gave him a look.

"What about weapons?" I asked.

"What do we need besides morphing?"

We do not know if this Yeerk is morph capable, Ax pointed out.

"Oh yeah. It doesn't matter, anyway. How would we be able to carry them while in morph anyway?" I hated to admit it, but Cassie had a point and we weren't going to have the option of weapons. At least while we were on the ground. 

"What about Jake, Tobias, and—" I almost said her name. I quickly corrected myself. "What about Jake and Tobias?"

I have not heard from my shorm since we came back to Earth from the Pool ship.

"And Jake isn't in any condition to take on this mission," Cassie stated with a hint of concern in her tone. "Not after…" We each knew what she meant. 

After a long silence, I spoke up. "Well, let's go get us a helicopter!"

* * * * * * * * *

You know, it's amazing how accessible an air base is to a bird. We flew into a hangar we had spotted from half a mile up and demorphed. It seemed too easy.

"That was too easy," I said. 

"These aren't Yeerks, Marco. They're just plain old regular troops."

"Yep. They're about to get a 'copter stolen right out from underneath them, and they don't even know it. That's the Air Force for you." 

"I do not get it. Get I-it. G-het it. It-tah."

Ax in his human form. He was still amazed by the sounds he could make with his tongue. It drove me crazy. And I was about to take a four-hour trip to another continent with him this way. I looked towards the copter. It had two rocket launchers with six rockets each, two mounted machine guns, and one in front, and best of all: a CD player with a stack of CDs. Apparently the Air Force felt the need to provide pilots with some luxury. Pretty nice. I looked at the side and saw the name of this type. 

"Rachel?" A helicopter named Rachel? (Didn't see that coming, did ya'?) Another sign that the irony gods were trying to do me in. 

"Well, let's go!" I yelled.

To Be Continued…

It's now 1:00 AM-again. I should change my name to KniteWriter or something. Sorry this isn't longer, but I couldn't find a way to make it any longer without making it boring. Chapter three should be ready by next Friday at the latest…


	3. In The Chopper

Chapter Three: In The Chopper

Chapter Three: In The Chopper

1 AM, again. I'm starting to think that the fact I keep writing under cover of darkness may be a social or mental problem. Oh, well. The best writers and artists were somewhat insane. 

I was right.

Being with an Andalite in human form was maddening beyond all possible belief. And if you add in the factor that the both of us plus another human were crammed into a three by four by four foot area, well, it's a miracle I wasn't trying to strangle Ax to death. 

"These controls are easy to work with. Work with-tha. Work-k-ka. The sound of a 'k' is a pleasant feeling on my tongue. Tong-ah," Ax said, still experimenting with the sounds after two hours, a demorph, a remorph, and another one and a half-hours. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. 

"I'm gonna kill him." Cassie tried to get an arm around me to hold me down, but I dodged it, and went to the front "passenger" seat. "Ax, do me a favor."

"What would you like, Marco? Marc-o. Mmmmmmmaaaarrr-rah-rah-c-c-c-oooooo."

"Stop that!"

"Stop what? What-tat."

"Stop experimenting with your tongue. It's unnerving, and it doesn't help with the fact that nervous about the upcoming situation. Or the fact that we'll be in trouble as soon as we get back, because where we come from, stealing a chopper is considered a Federal offense." I looked at the CD player. "Here, listen to some Limp Bizkit." I popped the CD into the tray, and hit the play button. "My way" blasted out of the speakers. I looked over to Ax. He had an expression that was in between shocked, worried, and even a little excitement. 

"Ok, now back to 'Talking with Cassie'" I told myself as I made my way to the back and saw Cassie looking out the window. (A/N: This would be the perfect place for any of those 'Cassie's Thoughts' Fanfics that you people are always writing.) I saw a tear in her eye. I didn't need her to tell me about what she was thinking. She was thinking about Jake and how the war had changed him. I thought about it sometimes, too, but not in the way she did. 

In a way, I felt sorry for her. Sure, she had a family, she was famous, but she had lost her best friend and her boyfriend in the war. Jake hadn't been the same since he lost his parents to the Yeerks. Killing Tom would've killed his spirit completely, and Cassie knew this. That's why she let Tom have the box and let him escape. But Jake had him killed anyway. And what did he give up for it? His cousin, his girlfriend's feelings for him, and more importantly, his soul. 

He would never, could never, be the same again. 

Of course, Cassie wasn't the only one who had lost someone. Rachel's death had affected me, but not as bad as it did the others. The one I missed was Jake. My best friend, Jake. The pre-war, way-too-responsible-and-adult-like Jake. The true Jake, who would never have let Rachel go on the suicide mission, or let his brother die, or kill seventeen thousand helpless prisoners of war. 

I looked out the window at the Andes, the Amazon rain forest, and the Pacific Ocean. Each one brought back memories of morphing or the war. The most memorable one was the ocean. The ocean and being a dolphin. The dolphin. Memories came exploding back into my mind. The playfulness of the dolphin. The total lack of depression in the dolphin's mind. All the dolphin wanted was to play and have fun. I envied the dolphin. It had no worries, no fears, nothing except for the fun. As if to answer my thinking, two dolphins exploded out of the water, hung in the air for a split second, and then dove back beneath, only to come back up a few seconds later. 

I looked over to Cassie again. She was looking back at me, without any tears, but I could still tell she had been crying. I nodded, as if I understood. I wasn't sure if I did or not, but I would still try to console her. 

I have visual confirmation of the Yeerk, Ax said.

"Did you morph in the cockpit?" I asked.

No, I am using my thought-speak while in my human form, as not to disturb you.

This surprised me. Ax usually isn't this aware of human emotions and wants. "Thanks." I said, kind of bewildered. I looked out the window at a white truck, moving along a winding mountain road. Then there was a beeping noise. "What was that?" I asked. 

"It was the sound of me preparing the missiles," Ax said, in regular speak again. I got in the "passenger" seat again and looked at the monitor. I saw a magnified view of the truck with a crosshair an inch below it. Using the joystick-like thing, I targeted the truck. The crosshairs crossed on the driver's area. I pressed the trigger just as Cassie yelled "No!" and hit my hand away. The shot went wide and hit the wall of rock behind the truck. 

"Why did you do that?!" I yelled.

"We can still save him, Marco."

I looked again at the monitor. The Yeerk had heard the explosion, and then seen us. He was now speeding up the mountain, swerving at the curves. At one pint, he nearly tipped the truck over the edge of the cliff, but he managed to bring it back around and drove on.

"We haven't got time for this, Cassie." There was a beep as Ax prepped the missiles again. I eased the cross hairs on to the Yeerk's engine…

Ooooh, the dreaded cliffhanger. I know what you're thinking: How can I make another chapter for this story? Well find out…next time….

TBC…


	4. Chapter Four: The Problems

A/N Sorry for the tardiness

A/N Sorry for the tardiness. I was having trouble coming up with an ending for this "mini-series." I guess I just have trouble saying good-bye. So, instead, I decided to continue it for a little longer.

...And just as I fired, Cassie pushed my hands away and the crosshairs slid to the left of the screen. I tried to push her away, but she jumped to the back area. I looked back to the truck. I looked just as the missile caught the edge of the back of the truck, exploding in a bright orange flash. Fortunately, Cassie's intervention hadn't caused me to miss the truck entirely. The explosion was a bigger one than I expected.

"Ax, are Kandrona pools flammable?" I asked.

No, but the liquid inside of them is.

I looked back to the wreck. No way the Yeerk could have survived that. 

"That's it? It seemed too easy," I said skeptically. "Well, let's go h--." A glimmer of metal in the waning sunlight caught my eyes. What was weird about it, was that it was coming from the talons of a bird. A hawk. A definately-out-of-place-hawk.

"Crap!" I yelled. "Cassie, how are we supposed to get him now?! Cassie?" I looked to the back. Cassie was gone. "Ax, where did Cassie go?!"

I do not know. I assumed she was still in the back.

Eeeeennnhhh. Eeeeennnhhh. Eeeeennnhhh.

"What is that?"

We are out of fuel, Marco. We will have to morph. Just then, the helicopter shuddered and the loud whir of the blades started to quiet down. I suggest that we morph NOW! He had demorphed completely, and his blue body was taking up most of the space in the cockpit. It wasn't any help that I had started morphing, and now I was a human with an osprey's enormous wings. 

The chopper was now below the canopy, and still falling, faster and faster, to the forest's ground. Vines and branches struck the metal hull with a sickening SCREEEECCHHH, as a new tear would appear. I finished morphing right after Ax and shot out of the "window".

A second later, the chopper exploded, and I felt a great heat on my back. Then a forceful wind pushing me forward. The momentum of the falling chopper was still affecting me, even now, and I was still sinking toward the ground. I tried to get some air, with little success. 

My belly skimmed the leaves and fronds on the ground. I flew past low branches and vines at a mad speed. finally, I gained enough air and shot up and through the green wall of leaves. I met the sky, orange and purple with a hint of twilight over the horizon. I looked around, trying to get my bearings. I looked to the mountain, at the smoldering wreckage that used to be a hauling truck. I looked around the area where I thought I had last seen the hawk. He had disappeared. I mentally cursed at Cassie, myself, Ax, and anyone else I could think of. If that Yeerk found the crystal, then that would be it. Game over. The end. I had only one hope, and that was the fact that we were still too far from the crystal for the Yeerk to cover in one night, even as a bird or anything else he may have acquired. And what had happened to Cassie? Why had she bailed on us? Why—

Marco?

Ax? Where are you?

I am above a hawk and an owl who appear to be fighting each other. Actually, The owl appears to be trying to hold the hawk still by grabbing and gripping at it's wings. I am going to try to help her.

So that's why Cassie left. She must have seen the hawk first and morphed without us knowing and left to chase after him. Wait! Ax, where are you? As if on cue, I heard a bird screech in pain to my left. I didn't see anything, so I shot down beneath the sea of green again, and saw three birds tumbling downward, in an almost comical ball of feathers and wings. Like looking at a fight on Looney Tunes. I shot down after them. Into the darkness of the should-be-strange jungle, but it doesn't seem like the first time that I've been here…

Ah, yet another unfinished part of the story, leaning towards another part. Now how will this story end???


	5. The Animal/The Past

…Down, down, down. Down through the green and black sea of leaves. I had long since lost sight of Ax, Cassie and the controller, and by the looks of my surroundings, it wasn't going to get easier anytime soon. I was immersed in a cloak of darkness, and it didn't matter that the sun was down. Below the canopy of the Amazon, light didn't exist. It was obvious that my osprey morph was going to be useless. 

I needed to morph-pronto. Unfortunately I was too high to start demorphing without having to worry about hitting the ground, but not high enough to get away with demorphing and remorphing quickly enough. I was going to have to land. This presented two new problems—not being able to see the ground, I might hit too hard and knock myself out, or I could descend slowly risking the chance the controller would get further away from us, and closer to the crystal. 

Either way, I needed to morph.

There was only one morph that would be of sufficient use. The jaguar. What? Where did that come from? I didn't have a jaguar morph. I hadn't even seen one before. Oh, well. I'd worry about it later. Right now I had to find the controller.

I decided to try to land on the ground at a semi-fast speed and pray I didn't break my neck. 

Down, down, and down some more. The lower I got, the denser the branches seemed to get. At one point, I thought I'd hit the ground, but it turned out to be yet another branch. A few seconds later I hit something much harder than a branch. I was diving at an angle, so I rolled, head over talon, wing over wing. 

"No time," I thought. I began to demorph. When I was totally human, I prepared to morph to the bat. I focussed on the DNA and form of the bat when I was hit from behind with a blow that made my gorrila's punch feel like a light slap. I fell and stumbled once again, and when I turned to see my assailant, I wondered why I wsn't dead yet. 

From the very little light filtered onto the forest floor from the twilight, I saw the monster of the Amazon, the jaguar. To this day I have no idea why this jaguar didn't kill me, as it very well could have. I have even less of an idea why it did what it did next. 

While I stood there, stone still/quiet, the jaguar rushed towards me, and with one swift movement, it jumped and then dove beneath my hand. Like he wanted me to pet him. And then a very strange thing happened (as if this weren't strange enough.) Visions of Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Ax, myself, Visser One, a Supermart near my house, Amazonian natives, and the Blade Ship surfaced from my "memory". At the end of this sequence of memories, was a single word that reverberated through my mind: Sario Rip.

The big cat also went into a coma-like trance and it took me a moment to realize that I had acquired him, unaware of having done so. 

It came to me just then. Instead of going bat, a would go jaguar. I started changing….When I'd finished, the original cat had come full out of his trance. He looked at me with now quite visible green eyes, and ran off into the jungle, as if nothing had happened. 

I had business to take care of.

Marc--? Wher- you? Cassie's voice. It was distant, and it sounded weak. Then a smell. My jaguar brain hadn't taken over for some reason, or if it had, it wasn't as strong as I'd thought. The reason that had occurred to me at that moment was because the scent was blood. It was no type of blood that the jaguar had smelled before. It was a bird's blood. Specifically, an owl's.

Cassie! I yelled. Where are you guys?

We're about a – ards away from a wrecke---copter. We –ght you were dead. Her voice was getting stronger. The chopper! They were by the chopper! 

Where's the controller?

We've got him. He's unconscious. Um, we don't have the scanner. I headed in the direction of the chopper. Why did she sound worried?

So? We can always go get another one to find the crystal.

What if someone else knows? We wouldn't have enough time to retrieve another one.

You know how Yeerks operate. It's all about themselves and the hell with everything and everyone else. If this controller had told someone else, he would have probably been beaten to the crystal. No glory for him..An afterthought:What about ours? Does it still work?

Ax is checking on it now.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Ax! Are you all right?!

What happened?! I asked.

The scanner gave Ax a shock.

Inferior Yeerk technology. Almost as primitive as the human microwave oven. Imagine, cooking food with micro particles at close range with only a piece of glass as a barrier.

What? _What? _The microwave? _Inferior?_ That's it. Next time I see you blue boy, we're going to have a little discussion about a few things. Like how good a bean burrito tastes when it's been cooked in a micro instead of a regular oven. Hmm?

Touché.

Have you been giving Ax some French reading material, Cassie? I mean, 'Touché'?

Finished! Ax yelled triumphantly. That's odd. Yeah. Right.

What Ax? I asked. 

We're nearer to the crystal now than we were three hours ago.

I emerged from the forest right next to the smoldering wreckage. How?

"Ahhhhhhhh!" a now demorphed Cassie screamed. Before a breath could have been exhaled, a very sharp looking blade was pressed against my throat.

Marco?

Yeah! What, did you think a jaguar would just walk out of the jungle at a leisurely pace with an alien walking around with that? I asked, indicating Ax's blade.

Ironically enough, one decided to just then. Not just any cat. _The_ cat. It rushed to Ax with pure liquid speed, and even before Ax could react, both he and the orange feline were in the trance that came with acquisition of DNA. 

The cat awoke before Ax and was "acquired" by a bewildered Cassie. Neither of them had awaken yet, the mysterious cat ran a few feet, then turned and looked back into my eyes. We stood there, for a silent moment, neither one blinking. Then, hew was gone.

"What happened?" 

I do not know, Ax said. Then to me:How did you acquire your morph?

You already know.

The scanner started beeping rapidly, What's going on? Cassie asked, now as a jaguar. 

Ax stared at the glowing screen, a green light showing his surprised fsce. Or what I assumed was surprised, especially considering what he said next.

It says the crystal is right here…

Extreme, extreme apologies on my considerable lateness in posting this. All I have to say in my defense is there's no cure for writer's block.


End file.
